


But Love, First Learned in an Engine's Eyes

by soudanidaitrashcollective



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-10 21:19:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2040561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soudanidaitrashcollective/pseuds/soudanidaitrashcollective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Souda fails to realize that Sonia is in a happy relationship and that he needs to stop trying, and this, in result, leads to increasing and varying failures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But Love, First Learned in an Engine's Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> General warning for Souda.

There were several things Souda had not been expecting when he had snuck into some dude’s house at 2 AM. Okay, there had been plans, and okay, he hadn’t had much views of what to expect in the first place. Some…hamsters, maybe? That dude liked hamsters, right. That was a good beginning. 

Souda was also drunk. which was a very good tactical advantage. See, when you’re drunk, you don’t get nagging voices saying things are a terrible idea. When you’re drunk, every idea is a good idea. Nothing goes wrong when you’re drunk, for example, Souda had totally managed to get to this third floor window.

He’d done research, he found the right apartment. He also found a good ladder. Souda hadn’t done enough research to realize the ladder was far too short, but it turned out there were stairs anyway, so it all worked out.

Technically, this was illegal, but, but. Souda grasped at some words. There’s a system, and Souda had been edging at Sonia for ages, it wasn’t fair, yanno, just wasn’t fair, some asshole to come in and swoop her off his feet. Probably…he was probably blackmailing her, that was it.

Souda crawled through the window (he was drunk, yes, but screws are simple to unlock when you’ve been doing it for years). This was what he was going to do, he was going to go do…….erm….

Upon crawling through the window, Souda realized he actually had no idea what he had planned out. In movies, they never really planned anything, they just went in and trashed the place and that was that. Souda did not have the strength to trash stuff, or at least, he didn’t have a screwdriver to efficiently break them without having to use physical force.

He awkwardly threw off some cushions from the couch, which was...described amply as just ‘a couch’. Everything here was basic as hell, this was not a place suitable for a princess to live in. If Sonia had fallen in love with him, Souda thought, he would’ve gotten the proper kind of couch, the kind that’s kinda slanted so you end up all squished together and hold hands and end up kissing a bit. A lovely loveseat.

He wandered to the kitchen. He tried to concentrate, his mind a bit too boggled by the hazy fog of drunkness in order to think of something appropriate to do. There were some plates on the counter, but closer examination revealed that they were paper. After a few minutes of very intense thinking, he grabbed some fried fish from the fridge and ate it. He let the empty bucket clatter to the ground. He couldn’t wait for Gundam to have to pick that up in the morning. Suitable revenge. Souda hated having to clean stuff up.

He dropped some eggs unto the floor, the whole food thing was a good idea, messes this are good way to trash something. It only hit him afterwards that he totally should’ve dropped them on the carpet. Fuck. Where’s his genius brain when he needs it.

He had other plans, other possibilities, rolling through his mind now. He got the ball rolling, now it was just about…just about keeping it rolling. Put it on a slope. Let gravity take care of the rest. He jerked out a drawer and felt accomplished as inertia send a wooden paddle flying.

Yeah. This was a good start.

Souda leaned against the fridge to think, falling back when he forgot 

Maybe it was at this point that he heard the foot steps. If Souda had had the capabilities of logic, Souda might’ve taken this moment to instantly scram to the window and try to make a getaway, but in this case, Souda realized, he could do it. He would get out all of his frustrations. Gundam would feel the vile serrated edge of his hatred.

Gundam entered and stared. It was a long stare filled with surprised and confusion. “Souda, what’s the matter?”

Souda started crying.

In Gundam’s defense, he did not have enough experience with alcohol to actually realize that Souda was obviously drunk. One could argue that Gundam should’ve been able to recognize it from the other signs, but also in Gundam’s defense, this was Souda. “Souda, is there...anything I can do?”

Gundam than realized he had forgotten to say it properly, an easy thing to do at 4 AM when you just woke up. So he rephrased himself.

“The Great Lord of Hell shall parden your embreachment into his domain, given that you make the sacrifice and enter his inner realms-“ Gundam stopped as Souda slumped up on the ground and curled up away from him. 

He could get his roommate, probably. His roommate was probably good with this stuff.

“Ah,” Gundam began. “Ahaha, don’t fear, mortal, there is naught to worry as the minion within my domain will come fetch your petty grievances soon enough.” Much of Gundam’s ambience was lost to the open fridge and trash on the floor, and also Souda crying.

Souda was lucky that he knew Gundam well, at least. This allowed him to withstand being around him while Gundam was without his power dampeners. In fact, Gundam’s sleeping wear only amplified his abilities, with his shirt portraying the ferocious figure of one of his foes conquered in battle. 

Gundam raised his arms to fiddle with his scarf, distraught when he realized he wasn’t wearing it.

“Nidai?” Gundam called, a bit loudly. There was no answer, so Gundam eyed Souda and then his roommates door and edged closer to the latter rapped on it. A long moment paused, and Gundam rapped it louder with his full hand. 

A few seconds passed and Nidai actually woke up, the door opening. 

Nidai didn’t wake up as fresh and chipper as one might expect someone of his physical health to be, and he towered over the door in a way that had been intimidating to Gundam a long time ago. Nidai’s hair was slightly muffled (the little hair tufts were still there, however, and Gundam found himself thinking once again of cats. It matched his shirt.)

“What is it?” 

For being woken up at the near hours of the morning, Nidai was not as pissed as the average person would be. There was an edge to his voice, yes, but it was more of a dull stunted edge that everyone who just got woken up at 3 am has. Nidai in general was a lot less intimidating than he had the right to be. This lack of general intimidation was Nidai’s great qualifier, however, Gundam thought. No threatening aura fighting to overtake his own. 

…Plus, Nidai took good care of the hamsters when he had to leave to go abroad.

“A fellow allegiant of mine came in here possessed by some soporific spell,” Gundam stated haughtily. “However, I am ill-cast in the manners of physical manipulation of such mass. As thus, I much turn to you, who is much more naturally gifted in the act.”

Nidai raised an eyebrow, processing what Gundam was saying before figuring out what Gundam actually meant. At this level of alertness, it took some time, but Nidai managed to get it.

“...Have you tried giving them some fruit and bread? That will help them avoid the hangover in the morning, if they’re up for doing it.”

“Hangover?” Gundam asked.

“Well, you just said they were drunk, right?” 

“Ah,” Gundam was hit by the sudden realization that yes, Souda was definitely drunk. Soporific had just seemed like a good word to use in that sentence, but then it actually fit. He had to recover, quickly, before his mistake became obvious. “Ah yes, of course! The young foresworn has attempted to intake the powers of lesser energies, only for his current chaotic state to wither him from within!”

“Do you want me to go move them?” Nidai thought. That means whoever it was threw up, properly. “Or do you want me to give a firm hand in removing them from the premises.” Nidai had more or less experience in the latter. It turns out that when you’ve over six feet tall and ripped as hell, you can easily find a few good part time jobs in that area.

Gundam cringed (inwardly, of course, of course) at the notion of something so brash.

“So you want me to just move them to the couch?” Nidai figured, the really obvious outward cringe a good indicator of Gundam’s sensibilities.

“Yeah, help me attain him peace until he awakens from his dark hibernation,” Gundam was pleased to have a roommate who could read him so efficiently, despite his unemotional facade. “Follow my guidance, and I will reveal where the dead one slumbers.”

Souda at this point was still curled up next to the fridge, but also fortunately had appeared to stop crying and instead fallen asleep. Or maybe he passed out, that happens to drunk people sometimes? Gundam was unsure. It also looked like some egg yolk had started to dry into his hair.

“Looks like he got all worn out,” Nidai said, lifting him up much in the way that a one would lift a rag doll, or the way that an incredibly fit person would lift someone of average wait. “Hey Gundam, I’ll need you to rearrange the couch cushions so I can lay him down. Were you looking for your hamsters or something earlier?”

“Their current domain of rule when left wild is mattresses.” Gundam quickly reassembled the necessary pieces of the couch, wondering how it got so disoriented into the first place. “This should suit naive intruder kindly.”. Nidai smiled at the statement.. He used to do a much louder boisterous laughter at some of the strange wordings of Gundam, but had stopped after seeing how quickly Gundam would seize up and talk talking.

Nidai slung the body off from over his shoulder and unto the couch.

Really, most people who attempted such a thing would likely give a person injuries, but Nidai somehow managed to get Souda down with no casualties. Gundam figured it was an upper body strength thing, or maybe something having to do with self restraint. It was hard to tell. Stuff involving people is harder to place than stuff involving animals.

“So who’s your friend here,” Nidai finally asked.

“His earthly name is Souda Kazuichi. He’s…” Gundam’s face went red a moment, a small smile slipping through his scarf. “He was the one I met Sonia-chan through.”

Gundam jumped as Nidai slapped his back enthusiastically,, laughing a throat that began somewhere in his diapraghm and ended somewhere on the other side of the room. “He must be a fine lad, then, if he knows her! Do you want me to fix him up tomorrow and help send him out?”

“Not a concern of your realm, this is a responsibility on my hands and as the sun rises nigh I will awaken this spirit and help him pass to the next realm.” Gundam posed his hands and fingers dramatically, like something from the recent popular shonen. It was a habit that he gained in high school but it never quite faded, sometimes people take you more seriously when it looks like you’re in the middle of doing some kind of alchemy. (Though, Gundam had to admit, a lot of the time they didn’t.)

“Gundam, you have to go and help at your job tomorrow,” Nidai said, and Gundam was a bit disarmed by the way Nidai’s voice could carry both intonations of friendship but also a stern lecturer. “Don’t worry about it, I have the morning free, I can take care of him, it’s not the first time I’ve helped a stranger through the stages of a hangover.” Nidai cracked some of his knuckles,,apparently forming a plan.

“It’s not necessary for you to deal with my problems,” Gundam worried for a second that maybe this wasn’t properly arcane enough, it could almost be passed off as normal conversation. This thought process was cut off by Nidai putting his hand on Gundam’s shoulder.

“Gundam, a friend of yours is a friend of mine! Akane’s caused you alarm with her hamsters more than one,, I can at least do something to make it up.” 

“I suppose it is unwise for a Dark Being such as I to lord debts over others, a true king rules with respect, not fear.”

“That’s right, a lot of the best rulers gained favor with their people.”

“In that case, I hand you some of my power, to ensure your success for tomorrow,” Gundam pounded his chest and offered part of his aura towards Nidai. Nidai accepted it, probably.

“It’s no trouble at all,” Nidai grinned. “So, anything I need to take into consideration about this friend of yours?”

“He is acceptable by my guidelines, I have sensed no distortions in his aura” Gundam said back simply. He once again reflected on how lucky he was that he had a roommate he could have full conversations with without having bullshit called on his general facade.

___________________

Gundam walked a bit more slowly and slumped over than usual the next morning, hands tugging at something around his neck only to realize the only thing there was his work-code uniform dress collar. Gundam’s center of gravity was someone on the floor beneath him, based on the way his whole body slumped down.

“What’s got your goat?” Nidai asked, folding down the newspaper he was reading. Most people their age weren’t sure how to go about getting newspapers delivered, but somehow Nidai had broken the system to get them delivered daily, and also, somehow, appreciate them. 

Gundam stared dejectedly a moment. “Apparently mere mortals were threatened by my protective garments, I have been cursed to wear but these beleagured low level clothes.” Gundam was wearing a cloth employee shirt. Black pants. Work boots. General work duds. 

“Are you trying to make the scar come across as natural?” There was a thin line across Gundam’s eyes, blended in carefully, a dark gray lightning bolt blended carefully in his skin.  
Gundam clenched his eye, he cringed, looked almost pained. “Are you implying that I, royalty of the Icy Underhells, falsely portrayed this wound from one of my most dramatic battles?”

“Most scars have more of a pink or brown undertone,” Nidai suggested. “Not to say that I’ve never seen instances where other colorations have been shown! Many of my athletes obtained some gross looking ones, but they don’t heal that neatly!”

Gundam muttered something to himself under his breath, rushing back to the bathroom and coming back with some noticeable color sticks in hand before rushing out the door. 

After an audible slam of the door from Gundam, Nidai lay back at the table. He didn’t bother picking the newspaper back up, instead getting up to look at how Souda was doing.  
He was still out like a rock.

According to Gundam, Souda was a loyal and good friend who always brought energy to any situation and had lots of exciting plans. Nidai had no doubt this was true, it’s just that Gundam had also described Hanamura as a ‘cheerful chef with much interest in other people’, Saoinji as ‘very youthful and willful’, and Komaeda as. Okay, Gundam had blatantly admitted being terrified of Komaeda. 

Basically, Gundam had a bit of a habit of overlooking the flaws in people. 

Gundam had waved off Souda’s actions as ‘he must’ve had a really rough time, I know he’s got some tough stuff going on already’. This was probably true, but it didn’t excuse the fact that Souda had broken in the night before and caused quite the disturbance. Fortunately, Nidai did know several good meditation techniques, better method of handling negativity than violence. There were definitely an opportunity to invite Souda to one of his workouts at the gym, there were several mental benefits to exercise and-  
Nidai heard a larger stirring from the couch, followed by a loud, almost exaggerated groan. 

“You getting up this early?” Nidai questioned.

This was, unsurprisingly, met with another loud groan, and something that sounded like ‘fuck off’.

Nidai walked over to the fridge, getting some water and grabbing a banana. He placed the water on the table next to the couch, while shoving the banana into his guests hands. 

“Eat this, it helps with hangovers.”

Less than a second later, Nidai heard what sounded like glass shattering and a series of more cussing. 

Nidai tossed some bread in the toaster, waiting as he heard various upset noises coming from the couch. He got a glass of water, carefully choosing a plastic cup this time. Maybe a straw? He’d put a straw in just in case.

“Here’s some more water, and I made you some toast,” At this point Souda looked blankly offended by the turns his morning had taken so far, and his face scrunched up further as he looked at the food.

“What the hell, its fucking burnt.” 

“Carbon in the burnt bits help filter impurities, its good for hangovers,” Nidai explained, stooping down to meet Souda eye to eye. “I’d suggest you eat it if you want to feel better quicker.”

“I’m not going to eat burnt toast for breakfast.”

Several minutes of gentle persuading did little to actually persuade Souda to do things for his health. However it did make Souda realize that he didn’t, in fact, know the person who was currently talking to. There were a couple vague recollections from the night before, yeah, but nothing substantial.

Souda had never imagined the possibility of Gundam having a roommate; Souda always had a hell of a time of getting a roommate and figured that renting out by oneself was easier. Who would even want to move with someone as pretentious as Gundam, anyway?

Souda decided to gain information by asking things that were already easily inferred. “Are you Gundam’s roommate?”

“I’m Nidai,” he said absentmindedly. “And I’m hoping you’ll think a bit more before breaking into our apartment next time.”

Souda definitely would think more, he thought. More out of self-preservation than sense, but hey, it was something. 

Nidai sat in a nearby armchair, leaning forward. “So, what business did you have coming here last night?”

“Are you like, Gundam’s friend or something?”

“Yes, I am, but I still expect you to answer my question.”

Souda sighed, thinking deeply. He came for deep complex reasons, reasons that some casual lug like this couldn’t understand.

“Well, I don’t think someone like you could handle matters of the heart, yanno. You wouldn’t understand, sometimes you gotta do things, for the sake of romance.”

Nidai paused a bit, stroking his tuft of a goatee. “I don’t mean to burst your bubble, Souda, but Gundam’s already dating some-”

Nidai found himself interrupted by a long extended wail from Souda.

“No! No! No, I wouldn’t want to go near anyone like him, what I’m saying is the heart of the pure maiden he stole! I know he has to have some dirt on her, why else would he date her? He’s pulling some sly shit, you know, I don’t think she actually wants to date him.”

Nidai leaned forward, folding his fingers together. He’d known Gundam for about six years now, which was about five years and eleven months longer than you needed to know Gundam to know that what Souda was saying was vastly out of character.

“Why do you think Gundam would do something like that?”

Souda bit his lower lip a bit, eyes swelling a bit, parsing out a response,

“Cause, cause, we had something good going, Sonia and I, we were going to get married, and have two kids, and I knew she loved me, but Gundam came and cast some- some weird spell, probably, and-”

Souda was sputtering awkwardly and looked like he was about to cry. Gundam had dealt with people a lot before, and while this situation was unique, he was decent enough at comforting them “Souda, don’t worry, Sonia is dating Gundam of her own volition, Gundam isn’t pulling anything bad to do it, okay.”

Souda sniffled a bit, awkward, and then stared seriously into Nidai’s eyes as he horked back some gunk and continued talking. “That’s a worst possible scenario, it means there’s something the matter with her! Sonia’s the ideal woman, okay, and if she isn’t well, I could still fix her up, but I’d still need to break up Sonia and Gundam and-”

Souda was abruptly cut off as Nidai grabbed Souda’s shoulder, a bit more tightly than Souda preferred.

“Souda, I understand that you are hungover, and not feeling well, but Sonia is a person who is free to do what she wants. Nothing she does it up to you, you do realize that, right?”

Souda stared blankly, and started to tear up.

“And what would you know about Sonia-chan, huh? I bet you haven’t even met her.”

The dark seed of annoyance growing in Nidai’s head was only gaining encouragement. “She’s been over here several times, and from what I can see, she’s a delightful young woman.”

Nidai wasn’t sure what he said that did, but Souda brightened up considerably. This was ruined by him talking. “Ha, I knew it, you like her too,, right? We can work together to free her up again, and then we can have a proper battle of men. I’d win of course, but you’d have a decent chance.”

“Souda, I’m helping you because Gundam has some form of respect for you, but if I hear you talking about interfering with them again before you’re done recovering, I will make you take your leave.”

Souda was about to shout something out, but stopped, the words bouncing in his mouth and making him look about to explode. Souda screeched to himself silently a bit, but then angrily pressed his head back into the pillow again and screamed.

_________________

“Hinata, can you believe that he kicked me out after like five minutes,” They were at a dessert shop. Hinata didn’t know why he bothered coming at this point. Hinata didn’t know a lot of things about why he hung out with Souda. It was all a general mystery. Hinata ate at his kusa mochi sparingly, wondering why he had bought something for Souda yet again.

“There was probably a better way to handle the situation?” Hinata continued stirring. “Nidai’s a pretty nice guy, but he’s not going to put up with that. I understand that you want to date Sonia, but I do agree that you need to move on.”

Hinata took a bite. “Anyways, I need to head out.”

“So,” Souda began talking, not having processed that Hinata was about to be gone. Hinata knew what was about to come out. Souda’s strange logic, his way of twisting a situation into something he can tolerate. “Wait, why are you leaving?”

“I promised I’d hang out with Nanami, I just realized I’m late.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll walk with you, then.” Souda got up and Hinata sighed. “It’s pretty rude of you to schedule something during the time we always hang out, you know. This is our bonding time.”

Actually, Hinata had enjoyed coming here every week on his own to relax and decompress. He just made dessert shop at the same time every week. A lot of the workers recognized him by face at this point, though, and it felt like a sort of betrayal to just stop coming.

“So, anyways, I got it all figured out, why Sonia’s dating Gundam, yanno? It’s obviously a ploy.”

“Souda, I think they…” Hinata’s voice was drowned out as Souda just continued talking.

“She’s going after Nidai, obviously, good girls like Sonia always go after assholes like that, especially ripped ones. She’s so distracted by him that she can’t see what a nice guy I am, and she’s dating Gundam because Gundam’s Nidai’s roommate, you see what I’m saying?”

Hinata saw, technically, in the way that one can still see what animal roadkill was before it got ran over.

“I think… you may’ve…. misinterpreted…” Hinata found himself stumbling over words, trying to find the right combination to make the situation clearer to Souda. “There’s a lot simpler ways to look at this, I think.”

“Well yeah, you’re right, a simple solution does come up if you look at it right!” Souda grinned, and his shark teeth shone in a way that made Hinata want to leave. “All I gotta do is date Nidai.”

Hinata paused for a moment. There were a lot of things he wanted to say to Souda at this point. Maybe point out they content way Sonia grinned when around Gundam, or the fact that Nidai one time explicitly told him that he found the idea of dating someone who couldn’t keep up with him difficult. Hinata also explicitly remembered some basic moral lessons. He always seemed to recall those when he hung out with Souda. 

“Souda… doesn’t the idea of dating someone to use them go against your...general idea of romance?” Hinata approached warily. “Like, when you talk about relationships, you want them to be ideal, right?”

“Hinata, hinata, it’s okay to do stuff like this if its a stepping stone to a TRUE matching of soul mates. Sacrifices have gotta be made, you know?”

“Well, uh, how do you even know Nidai would want to date you?”

Souda stopped abruptly, looking at Hinata with a look that would turn passerby to stone if the person giving it had not happened to be Souda. “Why wouldn’t he date me? I’m a good fuckin’ catch, yanno!”

“Well, uh-”

“And didn’t he date Gundam a few years back? If he’ll aim that low he’ll definitely go for a fine catch like me!”

“Well, how would dating Nidai even help the situation?” Hinata was a bit confused about this bit.

“Ugh, that’s obvious, Hinata! When Sonia sees me in comparison to Nidai, she’ll see how much better I am than him, and go for me! It’s that simple! And I don’t have the natural intimidation a dude like Nidai exudes, I’m cute and personable with women!” Souda thumped his chest proudly. “And I’ve had enough dudes hit on me that I know I’ll be able to get together with Nidai no problem.”

Souda smirked, there was no way this plan was flawed.

Hinata realized at this point that there was no degree of hope with Souda.

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is. The beginning of the trash ship fic.


End file.
